Dr. James Ducey, director of Obstetrics and Internal Fetal Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital, was photographed by the Advance in December on an unrelated topic.Staten Island Advance Photo

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Brooklyn woman has sued Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze over what she considers to be a forced cesarean section that resulted in the birth of her son nearly three years ago, according to media reports.

Rinat Dray, 35, claims in a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court that doctors at the hospital performed the C-section against her wishes when she gave birth in July 2011. The lawsuit claims that her bladder was injured during the C-section, according to the New York Post.

Rinat Dray wanted to deliver son Yosef naturally despite two previous C-sections. However, Ms. Dray claims that pressure from medical personnel for a C-section began shortly after she entered the maternity ward and lasted throughout the several hours that she spent trying to deliver Yosef without surgery, according to the New York Times.

"I have decided to override her refusal to have a C-section," a handwritten note signed by Dr. James Ducey, the director of Obstetrics and Internal Fetal Medicine at the hospital, says, according to the Times.

The malpractice lawsuit accuses the doctors and hospital of "improperly substituting their judgment for that of the mother" and of trying to persuade her by "pressuring and threatening" her during the birth, the Times said.